I go by the three C's: Cooking, Crafts and Cats.

Customise your frame!

Yes, you read that right! Today’s post will be about “customising your own frame” to fit whatever theme you have in mind. I wont be able to demonstrate every kind of design of course, but I’ll give you some ideas.

In my case, I got a deep black rimmed frame. It’s basically one of the kinds where it gives you to option to be even more creative with your customisation! You can insert just about anything behind the glass to recreate a scene or enhance your photos while displaying them! I googled some examples…

Only ones I could dig up, but you get the idea.

Alright let’s get started! I’m gonna be displaying one of my graduation pictures with my friend, so that will be my theme. Blurring it out to respect her privacy :P Since this is a very optional type of tutorial, I’ll be showing you what I did instead of telling you what to or not to do.

Materials you’ll need:

1) A deep frame. I got mine from Ikea.
2) Patterned paper, or use paint to use on normal white paper.
3) Polymer Clay or anything you can find or think of that you’d like to insert into the frame.

How to do it:

1) Since my frame already came with a layout, I cut up some of this pretty patterned paper and stuck it on to replace the plain white stuff.

2) Next, I added another smaller background to go under my picture as it was a little smaller than the square cutout above. To make it look more fancy, I painted a strip of gold paint on some paper and cut it up into thin strips for borders.

3) I set that aside and started with the items that’ll go inside the frame. Using white and red polymer clay, I created a certificate/scroll first. I rolled some of the white and trimmed it into a thin rectangle. Then I rolled that to make it look like some rolled paper. I curved and played with the edges a little to give it a realistic look to it :)

Then I grabbed a little piece of red clay and flattened it out. Using my cutting knife, I pushed the tip of it on the outer border of the circle to make it look like those old melted candles that are stamped on scrolls or letters in the olden days :P My beautiful assistant May is demonstrating this for you!

Initially thought of making a ribbon, but this looks way better, don’t you think? ;) Added two red strings to “dangle” under the “stamp” and stuck it on the certificate.

5) Now it wouldn’t be complete if I didn’t include a graduation cap now would it! To do this, roll a long strip of rectangle out of your black clay to make the base of your cap, and then join the ends together like this. Kinda like you’re shaping a cylinder. Mine looked like a leech worm, but you should make sure to keep your edges straight xD

Then for the top of the cap, make a square shape and be sure to keep it proportional to your base. It should be a square, not a rectangle. Place it on your base and make sure the tip of the square (any one of the four) is facing front. That’s how graduation caps look like :)

For the yellow tassel above, I used some yellow clay and rolled it into a string, then pressed on one tip to place in the middle of the cap. I rolled another short piece of string (a little thicker than the first) and stuck it to my string’s end, and using a cutting knife, sliced smaller pieces like so for extra detail!

Almost done!! I stuck both figures into the oven for a couple minutes to bake and harden and then glued them on my frame. Tadaa~

And here’s the final result…

Simple, but so pretty and easy to make! :) You don’t have to use polymer clay, as you can use flowers or dried rose petals, sea shells, or fill it with sand even! That’s why I love deep frames, because it’s all up to you!
So let me know what you think, and I hope you guys enjoyed this small DIY tutorial :>